Fianna Fáil's Mr Noel O'Flynn added his voice to a growing clamour against asylum-seekers. "We're against the spongers, the freeloaders, the people screwing the system," he said.
"Too many are coming to Ireland and too many to Cork in my view. In the past five years there have been 35,000 applications for asylum and 80 per cent of those have been from illegal immigrants using the refugee system to get in.
"I'm saying we will have to close the doors. The majority of them are here for economic reasons and they are thumbing their noses at Irish hospitality and demanding everything under the guise of the Geneva Convention while the taxpayer is paying for it all. The bill was £20 million in 1997 and by the end of last year it was rapidly approaching £200 million.
"I'm suggesting the following: the application and deportation process should be speeded up and a special High Court judge designated to deal with legal matters. There should be compulsory health checks for all illegals so that our health system is protected and our disease eradication programmes are not interfered with.
"At the point of entry, anyone found with false papers or a criminal record should be deported immediately - the law should be changed to allow for this - and there should be a referendum on the question of giving automatic citizenship to asylum-seekers' children born here.
Mr O'Flynn said his understanding, having spoken to the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, was that there would be a referendum on citizenship rights at a date to be decided.